Alabama veterans park may have to close if more donations don't come through

Visitors look at names inscribed at Alabama Veterans Memorial Park. (The Birmingham News file)Alabama Veterans Memorial Park may have to close if more donations don't arrive, officials with the group that operates it said today.

Part of the park land is already up for sale to raise money, the group said.

"We're on an empty tank," said Tom Martin, president of the Alabama Veterans Memorial Foundation board.

The park is located in Birmingham off Interstate 459, across from Liberty Park. The park includes a large memorial with about 11,000 names of state residents who have died in foreign wars.

As foundation officials this morning prepared for this afternoon's Veterans Day week event at the park, they wanted to let the public know about their financial woes. The programs for today's event includes inserted sheets seeking donations that says the foundation is in "a financial crisis and struggling to keep the park maintained and open."

"This could be one of our last events," said Bob Mosca, executive director of the foundation.

Mosca said the group is getting about 50 percent less in donations from private and government sources this year compared to previous years. "The economy has hurt us terribly," he said.

Birmingham City council women Carole Smitherman and Valerie Abbot several months ago got $10,000 set aside for the park that will help keep it open until Memorial Day in May. "We'd be closed right now if it wasn't for them," Mosca said.

Martin said people think this doesn't cost anything to run the park, which has no paid employees, Martin said.

But it does cost, officials with the non-profit foundation said.

Mosca said it takes about $2,500 a month to keep the park, which is open 24 hours a day, maintained. That includes about $720 a month for liability insurance, $458 a month for rental of the mobile building on the property, electricity, and landscaping, among other costs, he said.

To raise money to operate and possibly build an education center that has been in the park's plans, the board decided about two years ago to put five acres of the park up for sale, Martin said.